Ontario School Bans Wi-Fi 287
St. Vincent Euphrasia elementary school in Meaford, Ont. is the latest Canadian school to decide to save its students from the harmful effects of Wi-Fi by banning it. Schools from universities on down have a history of banning Wi-Fi in Ontario. As usual, health officials and know-it-all scientists have called the move ridiculous. Health Canada has released a statement saying, "Wi-Fi is the second most prevalent form of wireless technology next to cell phones. It is widely used across Canada in schools, offices, coffee shops, personal dwellings, as well as countless other locations. Health Canada continues to reassure Canadians that the radiofrequency energy emitted from Wi-Fi equipment is extremely low and is not associated with any health problems."
Breaking News: (Score:3, Insightful)
People refuse to do things that their doctors say are safe!
For our next story people insist that the things doctors say are bad for you are actually the best things to do ever!
Re:Breaking News: (Score:0, Insightful)
A chiropractor wants to complain about people becoming dependent? That's the pot calling the kettle black if I've ever heard it.
Re:Summary wording (Score:4, Insightful)
What's even more ridiculous is the loaded wording of the summary.
I think he was being sarcastic...
Re:Rational decision by school administration? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Rational decision by school administration? (Score:5, Insightful)
or you could tell them they are being stupid and ignore their hysterics. That is more straight forward and takes less time. Not to mention you can still use WiFi.
Re:Wired FAIL? (Score:5, Insightful)
This is because the average person is an uneducated half-wit, who can be scaremongered by cranks and crooks (look at the whole MMR vaccine-autism "controversy").
If people are that concerned about radiation, then I suggest they move into salt mines and pray to whatever deity they hold dearest that neutrinos do indeed only interact weakly with other matter.
Fucking stupid rubes. What a pack of retards.
Re:Wired FAIL? (Score:5, Insightful)
That's okay, but this quote is WAY better:
"A group of Ontario parents dubbed the Simcoe County Safe School Committee believes Wi-Fi transmitters in schools may be responsible for a host of symptoms their kids show -- from headaches to an inability to concentrate -- all of which disappear on weekends."
In grade eight my mother noticed that I tended to be sick on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Rather than blaming the t-ness of those days, she correctly deduced that those were the days I had health class with the evil principal.
I wonder how many of those kids have wifi at home?
Re:Breaking News: (Score:5, Insightful)
No... crackpot.
Re:Rational decision by school administration? (Score:3, Insightful)
"pretty sure parents wouldn't have voted to allow the school to spy on students through webcams"
Are you sure? Based on the overprotectiveness of the average parent these days, I suspect a good portion of them would probably be interested in getting a copy of the surveillance software for themselves. You know, just in case.
Where there's blame, there's a claim (Score:3, Insightful)
I can see it now, parents suing for past 'damage' caused by wifi.
Re:problem (Score:5, Insightful)
Part of the problem with that is that everybody seems to want to start with the position that "this is safe unless you can irrefutably prove otherwise", and they go ahead and load everything up with chemicals/whatever and assume it's safe. Which does lead to stuff that you might expect to be dangerous being used until someone can prove it is dangerous. Pharma companies do it all the time, and, have been proven to have lied about risks they knew were there. Think Thalidamide, for instance.
I don't always trust people when they say "oh, sure, this radioactive corn with spiders-silk genes must be perfectly healthy there's no proof to the contrary". The companies introducing these things want us to believe that their chemicals are safe, but it's all discovered after-the-fact.
Assuming everything is safe generally leads to companies pursuing profit with absolutely no regard for if their product is safe. Then they get the rules changed so they're not actually required to tell you about what's actually in it because it hasn't yet been proven to be a possible risk. I wouldn't trust Monsanto on any claims they make about product safety, and I think that to a certain extent, companies should be doing more testing before they release it to the market.
You can go ahead and eat the experimental green goo -- personally, I'd rather they had to put it on the label so I could choose, instead of just saying that it hasn't been proven harmful. It's too damned late by the time they 'discover' that a something we've never tested is, in fact, dangerous.
Not sure this belongs in 'idle' (Score:3, Insightful)
Anti-scientific 'ban everything' movements are the flipside of the pro-CO^2 believers. People who think they intuitively know more than those who study that field in particular who have research to back up their claims.
It's a failing of our education system that more people don't understand science, the concept. You don't need to understand all the branches of science. You just need to know that 'my kid complains of headaches at school' does not mean you can pin the blame on WiFi without any further tests.
Re:Breaking News: (Score:4, Insightful)
Chiropractic health professionals either deal with the skeletal system or with bullshit. Some of them you walk into the office, they know everything about all ligaments, tendons, joints, bone structure, etc; and they can throw you under an X-ray and point out all the stress points from your posture and all long-term damage done from you always sitting wrong. They can also supply physical therapy, nudging the joints here and there to straighten things out that have gone a bit awry.
The bullshit artists are the ones that want you to believe all ailments are cured by chiropractic practice, which the parent seems to be.
Irrational beliefs (Score:5, Insightful)
OK /. help me match the list of irrational beliefs with the county.
Canadians think RF affects the body in a non-thermal way, which is hilarious.
South Koreans believe in fan death
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fan_death [wikipedia.org]
(North Koreans don't have the electricity to run the fans...)
USA has all kinds of irrational beliefs vaguely revolving around religion, abstinence education works, creation science etc.
Any other "funny" ones?
Re:Rational decision by school administration? (Score:4, Insightful)
In this case it's probably not worth dealing with them over something as insignificant as WiFi, but figuring out when something is important enough to fight for is the difficult question.
I'm fine with this... (Score:2, Insightful)
I don't see a problem with a lack of wifi in schools (with an exception for College/University, and only in designated areas), but not because of any supposed medical reasons.
What reason would any grade-school kid need wifi access for, anyways? What device would a grade school kid have that would even have use for wifi? A laptop? Why would a grade school kid have one? Even if they did, what use would the make of it in school (on a regular enough basis to warrant a wifi network)? A wifi enabled cell phone? You don't need wifi to make a call or send a text, and the phone should be off during class anyways.
Re:ignorance is too common (Score:4, Insightful)
Since there's been studies where these "electrosensitives" were placed in Faraday cages, but told they weren't in one, still had symptoms, and when they were placed in places they were told blocked signals, but didn't, and still "got better," yeah, I think that it's okay to think people like that are full of shit.
Re:Rational decision by school administration? (Score:4, Insightful)
No, it's not a solution to anything. It's giving in to baseless and irrational fear, which does nothing but promote baseless and irrational fear.
This is why I have a black cat. It keeps stupid people out of my house.
Re:Breaking News: (Score:3, Insightful)
There are still plenty of chiropractors out there shilling crap. The two in my town are all into the latest in greatest in quackery like chelation therapy and magnetic body scans.
You're giving money to crooks and nutbars. Congrats for your small part in pushing medicine back a 1,000 years.
Re:Breaking News: (Score:4, Insightful)
That's not true. They're scientifically proven to be effective at pain relief, at a minimum. I'm not willing to take it so far as the other claims, but if you're out of whack and in pain, they can certainly help you. "NOTHING" is proven false. Look it up.
they are "scientifically proven" to be as effective as placebo at treating subjective symptoms. It's basically the same effect as having your mommy kiss your booboo. You've received "treatment" from a "doctor", and now you "feel better". Some people are willing to grant the stamp of effective to placebo treatments, I am not.
Chiropractic fails utterly at treating anything that can actually be measures objectively, and that's on top of the entire PREMISE of the treatment being scientifically unsound.
The best you can hope for from a visit to a chiropractor is the equivalent of a massage, except that you're virtually guaranteed not to get a happy ending.
Re:Rational decision by school administration? (Score:4, Insightful)
Or you could try to demonstrate how wifi is utterly harmless. Those who consistently refuse to listen can take their snowflakes out of school if they want.
Re:Breaking News: (Score:3, Insightful)
Chiropracty is founded on bullcrap. Yes, I'm sure there are better witchdoctors than others, but they're all still witch doctors.
Re:Wait a minute... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Rational decision by school administration? (Score:3, Insightful)
Yes, let's applaud the schools for listening to the dumbest people in the district. Parents will consistently agree to the most idiotic conservative ideas out of mindless protectionism.
The correct response to a popular call to ban Wi-Fi would have been: "Do you have cordless/cell phones at home ? Yes ? Well then GO FUCK YOURSELVES"
What's worse, the unproven potential risk of getting cancer from radio waves ? Or terminal stupidity caused by chickenshit parenting and fearful education ?
Re:Wait a minute... (Score:4, Insightful)